Chapter Two: Bones of Steel
Mod. Condition +2 Character has used or dealt with chaositech before. +4 Character has used or dealt with a chaositech item similar to this one before. +2 Character is extremely chaotic or maybe even a little mad (DM’s discretion). –2 Character is extremely lawful and logical. –4 Character believes the item to be magical. +10 Chaositech item’s use is straightforward or obvious (goggles, for example). Characters can use Craft (chaositech)† (see page 21) rather than their Intelligence modifiers on this check. Success means that the character can activate the item. He still might not know what it does (unless its function is obvious). Trial and error is probably the best way to discover what an item does, once a character has determined how to activate it. Failure on the check means that the character doesn’t understand the item and can’t use it until he gets assistance from someone with more knowledge, or until he makes another check the next day. (A character cannot take 20 on the check.) A character who rolls a 1 on the check accidentally activates the device; if it is a weapon, he very likely inflicts damage upon himself or someone near him in the process. All chaositech items differ slightly from one another, and they are all bizarre in appearance and use. Even two blinding ray emitters† or dazzling bombs† can look different. The DM should stress that these devices aren’t all that much like modern-day technology. They weren’t created on an assembly line or mass produced—and they weren’t made to be used easily, particularly by those with stable, ordered minds. Some chaositech devices require no activation—clarity goggles†, for example, are “activated” simply by wearing them. This simple “use” activation is straightforward. Other methods of activation include: Switches: Most non-intrinsic chaositech devices are activated via a switch. A common switch type is a small plate that fits into a creature’s mouth, connected to the device by a thin tube or cord. The user bites down on the plate to activate the switch. (This does not impair speech.) Other common switches include a glass panel that one taps or a rotating ball that one turns. Activating a switch is a free action. Weapons with a switch activation, such as emitters†, take the normal amount of time to use in an attack. A wielder whose base attack bonus allows for multiple attacks can make them with a switch-activated weapon. So a single attack is a standard action, and multiple attacks are a full attack action.
Lever or Unique Control: Some non-intrinsic chaositech devices have more complex controls, such as a small lever with multiple positions, a cord that one must pull (often to a specific length), or a liquid-filled bag that one must squeeze. Activating an item this way is a standard action. Headclamps: Some chaositech devices the user can control mentally, through a tube or cord connected to a headclamp (see sidebar, page 29).
The Rigors of Chaos Dealing with chaos is difficult and dangerous. Chaositech is no different, though it may appear to be simpler and safer than it really is. Chaositech devices frequently fail, and sometimes fail spectacularly, exploding in the hands of the character attempting to use them. Worse, the mere presence of chaositech can cause deformity and mutation as the chaotic energies seep slowly from the device and are leeched into creatures and objects of normal matter.
Chaotic Failure When a character makes a check to use a non-intrinsic chaositech device, a natural die roll of 1 indicates that the item is drained of power, no matter how many or how few uses it has seen since it was last refueled. Such is the unpredictable nature of chaos. If the device has no roll associated with its use, roll 1d20 when activating it. If it has no set activation, or if it goes for a long time between activations (such as armor), make at least one check daily to determine whether the device fails when the device is used. Unused devices (sitting on a shelf, for example) require no checks. You need not keep track of uses or charges with a chaositech device—the user simply waits until it fails. In effect, most chaositech devices have 20 uses. Some item descriptions specify how often checks should be made.
Chaotic Backlash If a device fails, make another d20 check. In the case of another roll of 1, the device overloads, explodes, or melts down in a dramatic and dangerous way, inflicting 3d6 points of damage on anyone within 10 feet (Reflex saving throw, DC 18, for half; no saving throw allowed for characters touching the item). The device is utterly destroyed in the case of such a backlash.
Raw Chaos All chaositech is powered by raw chaos, a viscous fluid that appears at once to be dull gray and a gleaming mass of every scintillating color that exists. Raw chaos is perhaps one of the most dangerous substances in the universe, destroying everything it touches if not handled properly. It is normally
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